i was really struck by a cartoon this week that had the leaders of iraq and afghanistan, maliki and karzai, looking at our debt ceiling debate and saying do you think they'll ever be ready for democracy? you know, the fact is that we've got people who have been elected, house members have been elected in gerrymandered, much more partisan districts. they're more worried about being challenged in a primary than running against the democrat. you've got both caucuses now much more ideological because the census the democrats were defeated in the last round. so, this whole thing fell apart. john boehner and barack obama probably could have come together on something. they could not lead their caucuses, and boehner is a different kind of speaker. he has not the ability or the desire to go out and say this is the deal, my way or the highway. you're not going to get on this, you're not going to get on that, you're not going to have a good office. the old enforcement mechanisms, as much as we dislike them and used to criticize them, they worked. leaders could demand followship. here, there's an exi